"They that seek me early shall find me."-PROV. viii. 17.

T is often said that "the child is father of the man ;" and in no small degree this can be affirmed of every prominent statesman or philanthropist. The traits evident in childhood are often prophecies of distinction in certain paths then indicated, when the years shall have given gray hairs to the brow, and maturity to all the mental powers.

This was eminently true of George Peabody, the financier and the benevolent giver of great gifts. His childhood foreshadowed the glory of his later years. And yet his childhood was not marked by incident, or memorable

for peculiarities. Whatever the little eccentricities of afteryears, his childhood was not in any sense that of an oddity. Men and women thought of him as the good boy, the faithful son, the dutiful child, the industrious student, the honest youth; and, if they sometimes called him a mother-boy," it was not because he was shy and effeminate, and wanting in boyish energy and daring, but because he loved his mother; and it was the joy of his young life to add any thing to her happiness.

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That he was brave and honest, upright and conscientious, is not at all strange when we consider his ancestry. However any may sneer at heraldic emblems, it is yet true, that, as the Scriptures declare, "the glory of children are their fathers;" and none may therefore rightfully despise a pure and noble ancestry. The genealogy of the Peabody family has been compiled by the late C. M. Endicott of Salem, and revised by William S. Peabody of Boston, with a partial record of the Rhode-Island branch by B. Frank Pabodie, in the spirit of those who adopted the language of Job: "For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers."

In the same spirit, Nehemiah Cleveland, Esq., in his address at the Topsfield Bi-Centennial Celebration, thus ́ spoke of the origin of the Peabody family in America:

"From a very early period in the history of this town, the Peabody name has been identified with it. Thanks to the spirit of family pride or of antiquarian curiosity, great

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pains have been recently taken to dig out the roots and follow out the branches of the old Peabody tree. Old it may well be called, since it has already attained to a growth of nearly two thousand years. Boadie, it seems, was the primeval name. He was a gallant British chieftain, who, in the year A.D. 61, came to the rescue of his noble and chivalrous Queen Boadicea, when bleeding from the Roman rods.' From the disastrous battle in which she lost her crown and life, he fled to the Cambrian mountains. There his posterity lived, and became the terror of the Lowlands. Thus it was that the name 'Pea,' which means 'mountain,' was prefixed to 'Boadie,' which means man.' There was a Peabody, it seems, among the knights of the Round Table; for the name was first registered with due heraldic honors by command of King Arthur himself. At the period when the business transactions of this town begin to appear on record, Lieut. Francis Pabody (this was the orthography of the name at that period) was evidently the first man in the place for capacity and influence. He had emigrated from St. Alban's, in Hertfordshire, England, about seventeen miles from London, in 1635, and settled at Topsfield in 1667, where he remained until his death in 1698. His wife was a daughter of Reginald Foster, honorably mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in Marmion' and 'The Lay.' Of this large family, three sons settled in Boxford, and two remained in Topsfield. From these five patriarchs have come, it is said, all the Peabodys in this country. Among those of this name

who nave devoted themselves to the sacred office, the Rev. Oliver Peabody, who died in Natick almost a hundred years ago, is honorably distinguished. Those twin Peabodys (now, alas! no more), William Bourne Oliver and Oliver William Bourne, twins not in age only, but in genius and virtue, learning and piety, will long be remembered with admiration and respect. The Rev. David Peabody of this town, who died while a professor in Dartmouth College, deserves honorable mention. A kinsman of his, also of Topsfield, is at this moment laboring, a devoted missionary, in the ancient land of Cyrus. The Rev. Andrew T. Peabody of Portsmouth, and the Rev. Ephraim Peabody of Boston, are too well and favorably known to require that I should more than allude to them. Prof. Silliman of Yale College is descended from a Peabody.

"The Peabody name has abounded in brave and patriotic spirits. Many of them served in the French and the Revolutionary Wars. One of them fell with Wolfe and Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham. Another assisted at the capture of Ticonderoga and of Louisburg, and in the siege of Boston. Another was among the most gallant combatants on Bunker Hill. Another commanded a company in the Continental army, and sent his sons to the army as fast as they became able. One more, Nathaniel Peabody of Atkinson, N.H., commanded a regiment in the Revolutionary War, and subsequently represented his State in the Continental Congress. In medicine and law, the reputation of the name rests more, perhaps, on the quality than the